Tag Archives: behavioural interview

This week has been interesting. I met a lot of people – about half in person and the other half virtually.

I like the skype interview. I don’t feel guilty about making people come all the way to my office (and mortgage their car to pay for downtown parking). It’s also easier to fit in to busy people’s schedules.

Here is what I noticed. The people who met me in person had obviously taken care with their appearance and their timing. There was a general sense of preparedness about them when I met them in our reception area.

The skype chats were different. It seemed to be a much more casual thing. Not too much care with the surroundings and not to concerned about attire.

Now, I know that different industries have different “uniforms”. If you meeting someone from a financial institution, you need to look well dressed and successful. Cuff links and monogrammed cuffs are optional but the suit is mandatory.

But even if you are interviewing in a software company with Red Bull on tap, you are probably going to put on a clean t shirt.

Don’t let a video interview be your downfall. It is just as important as an in-person one.

Be ready – test your wifi connection with a friend before the call

Look neat – you can take the TV news anchor approach – shirt and tie on top, shorts on the bottom

Have your resume and place to make notes beside you

Turn off your phone – you know it’s going with that obnoxious ring tone you assigned to your brother-in-law in the middle of the thorny salary question

Remove distractions – let everyone (including your dog) know that you are in an important meeting

These things won’t necessarily get you the job but they will help you make a better impression.

It’s winter here in Canada and if you are doing the interview circuit, you need to be prepared.

There is nothing worse than sniffling during a conversation. You try to be subtle by wiggling your nose or casually wiping your sleeve near your nose but face it: there is no substitute for a tissue. So start each day by putting one in your pocket, sleeve or bra strap.

If you have a bit of a cough or a tickle (and who doesn’t these days?), then put some lozenges or tic tacs in your pocket, purse or briefcase. You can pop one while you are waiting for your meeting to start. It will give you something to do with your hands.

Make sure you give yourself extra time before the interview but don’t hang around the reception area – that’s not cool. Plan to take a few minutes in the lobby for your body temperature to sort itself out. Your face and hands will be cold but your armpits will be working overtime so rather than greet the person you are meeting with cold hands and the tell-tale half moons of nervousness, spend a few minutes in the lobby. Take off your coat, blow your nose and wait until everything comes to room temperature. Then head upstairs to announce your presence.

Finally, no matter how much of a Tim Horton’s or Starbucks fan you are, don’t take your coffee into the meeting unless you are prepared to offer some to the other person.

So to sum up: arrive early, finish your latte in the lobby, pop a tic tac and set yourself up for a great conversation.

She filled our heads with all kinds of information about social media and how it’s really being used today.

One of the many cool concepts she talked about was badges. Firefox has started a campaign where organizations that educate can issue and users can earn badges to display on their online profiles. Today, we just have our degrees and diplomas up on the wall and people can only see them if they scroll way down to the bottom of a linked in profile.

Imagine if your google+ or Facebook page had 6 or 8 badges that reflected your knowledge and achievements. Cool, no?

Firefox has made available developer kits so that companies can make their own badges for people to earn. I am no developer but here is the list of badges that I think need to be developed for job seekers.

Knows how to ace a behavioural interview including the trick question about how many tall people live in Chicago

Has created several different versions on their resume – Word, PDF and Infographic

Can go to a cocktail party and score a meeting

Is still connected to people at every company where they have ever worked

Can name and navigate six or more job boards

Has a working relationship with two recruiters (by relationship, I mean they will return your call

So maybe the last one is a little personal but in my view, these are all badge worthy skills. Even if you can’t get a badge for them yet, work on them anyway. It’ll do you good.